I have no idea what normal is - please help

Not that you need more confirmation, and I do have a gen 3 so it may be different, but without the A/C running the car usually consumes around 1-3 amps of current at idle from the battery. The AC alone when it's cranking full bore can consume upwards of 10 amps. That is a significant increase in the current used and can drain the battery proportionally. Sounds OK to me. Congrats on your purchase!

 

Yeah, it does draw some juice. But it's worth it to keep the battery cool ... not to mention the carbon based life forms occupying the cabin.

 

Absolutely. I never turn it off to save gas. I live in Dallas, i would lose 10 lbs in sweat if I tried to drive with it off!

 

And your car would really stink!! So would mine. LOL!

 

I fully expect to see you listed in the 800 miles on one tank of gas club soon.

 

Welcome, Charlie! I, too, have an '07 that crossed 200K a couple months ago. It's going to my daughters to share, now that I have the Prime. Just wanted to concur with previous posters - everything you describe is completely normal. Green is good; yes, you'll see big, temporary drops in mpg from time to time depending on conditions (like when I turn out of my street and immediately head up a steep hill); and the battery can discharge pretty quickly (e.g., sitting in stop-and-go on a hot day with the A/C blasting).

 

I concur with this response. The AC, by the way, is electric powered and draws very little power.

It sounds like you have a great car with a nearly new battery. You might want to have someone go over the brake and suspension. Consider changing the trans fluid with Toyota brand, and of course check the engine oil and both coolant levels at every fill up. I would do the oil now, and then follow a 5,000 mile change routine. I use Mobil 1 0W20.

 

Did you mean to say the A/C draws a lot of power?

 

From my experience with a 2009 Prius, the car will give single-digit MPG numbers when you're just starting and going slow or accelerating uphill from a stop or in traffic jams.

There's a difference between the battery level hitting 7 bars (when it turns green) and 8 bars (green and full). My car likes to live between 6-7 bars most of the time, so I see it turn green every day, but I rarely see it getting to a full 8 bars. That generally happens only after I've gone down a hill and my battery level was at 7 bars beforehand. If you live in a hilly area, then you're more likely to hit full 8 bars more often.

Air conditioning drains the battery level incredibly fast. It can go from 6 bars down to 2 bars in a couple minutes if the car's not moving or in a traffic jam. When it hits 2 bars, the engine will come on and charge the battery up to 3-4 bars. This is all normal.

Signs of a weak or dying battery are: when the battery level drops overnight (6 bars when you parked, 1-2 bars when you start the car in the morning) and when the battery level cycles between 1 bar and 8 bars.

If your car had a new battery from Toyota installed 40,000 miles ago, then the battery you're on will probably last another 100,000 miles or more. And since the car has regular service records, you've got a better than average chance that the rest of the car could make it that far as well.

 

No. Not much at all. It can run most of an hour on 1 or 2 "bars" of the battery when the engine is off. It sees very efficient in my Gen 4.

 

The Gen 4 must be totally different. My 2012 will start the gas engine when it hits 2 bars. On a hot 80 degree day even with a pretty full charge after the A/c runs for 5-10 mins. the gas engine will start. Pretty much the same as all my other Pri.

 

I have been sitting in the evening sun in Arizona, just north of Yuma. It's 109 F outside. 71 F inside the car. The car is in the Ready mode. The AC is on Auto. The car ICE starts about every 20 minutes and runs for less than 2 minutes. It's a Gen 4. I am monitoring the AC power consumption using OBDII on an iPhone. It's 0.4 kW. Watching the Energy Monitor, the battery is at 2 bars when the ICE starts, and gains a single bar and then the ICE shuts off. This is real time. I sometimes camp in the car in hot weather. For an 8 hour sleep, the car uses less than a gallon of gas. I have calculated it a couple of times and recall that on a hot night it consumed 0.86 gallons.

 

Agreed, but I think this discussion is with regard to Gen 3 Prii, or earlier.

 

The loud engine complaint is fairly common for cars with small 4-cylinder engines, since they need to rev higher to get the same amount of acceleration. When you need to go faster in a Prius, it's going to be noisy. My car also doesn't like the cold, so when I was getting on a highway in January during -10 F temperatures, it really got loud. Cold also dramatically lowers fuel efficiency. For example, my last 10 fill-up average is a bit over 48 MPG according to Fuelly, but when it gets cold, that can go down to 40 MPG or below. Since you're in Florida, though, it probably won't affect you that much.

 

OK, welcome to your introduction to a vehicle with a continuously variable transmission (CVT)

In your other vehicles, as your engine rpm increased, so did your vehicle speed, then you shifted to the next gear, and it did the dance all over again with each gear. You would (should) have also noticed the engine volume going up and down with each gear and speed.

The Prius is different. It has no "gears" to shift through. As you press the gas pedal, the engine comes alive and revs up and stays revved up as your CVT changes ratio to add vehicle speed. That makes new folks say the engine roars. The other side is the car is so quiet, it is very easy to hear what your old vehicle covered up with it's normal noise in general.

It's normal, just drive it.